Processes, patterns, practices, and perspectives: What we talk about when we talk about “development”

Figures & data

Figure 1. A conceptual schematic describing the construction of a descriptive typology (1) and application of it to explore relationships among types that are based on interest, values, or purpose (2) or hypothesize an empirical relationship (3).

Note: Two alternative formulations are given for each type of relationship (a-c), which are only in competition for the latter ontological category (3).

Figure 2. A schematic of the process that was used to classify textual occurrences of “development” within the final descriptive typology.

Notes: The solid lines and bold categories indicate the route of classification of the uses that are the primary interest in this analysis. For the 2nd and 3rd levels, the classification proceeded left to right, such that “Deliberate” and “Unclear” were everything that wasn’t classified in the alternatives to the left of each.

Table 1. Summary of the general temporal trends of use of “development” observed in selected articles from World Development, with evidence from multiple lines of textual analysis

Observed trend	Textual analysis
	# of articles (Table 2A)	Total uses (Table 2B)	Median uses/article (Table 2C)	Use of qualifiers (Table 3)	Categories represented (Table 4)
1. Decreasing reliance on “development”	Decrease in % articles meeting selection criteria
2. Increasingly rigorous use	Decrease in % articles with unclear and unrelated uses	Decrease in % unrelated and unclear uses	Decrease in % unrelated and unclear, increase in % clear	Increase in all measures of qualified use
3. Increasingly specialized use	Decrease in % with unrelated/unclear	Decrease in % unrelated and unclear uses	Decrease in % use for all general categories	Increase in % qualified	Decrease in # categories represented
4. Formalization of interdisciplinary discussion	Increase in % of articles using proper nouns		Increase in % use of proper nouns	Increase in use of qualifiers within all general categories
5. Shift away from discussing Processes		Decrease in % referencing Processes	Decrease in % referencing Processes		Decrease in weighted score for Processes

Table 2. Summary of the textual analysis of selected journal articles from World Development in 1973, 1993, and 2013, shown here as (A) the number of articles with representation (1+ uses), (B) the total uses across all articles, and the (C) median and (D) maximum use within each article

	A. # of articles			B. total uses			C. median uses/article			D. max uses/article
	1973	1993	2013	1973	1993	2013	1973	1993	2013	1973	1993	2013
Published articles	43	141	181
Selected articles	11	24	20
	25.6%	17.0%	11.0%
Selected uses				363	1,284	1,064	27	41.5	41	82	191	278
Proper nouns	6	19	16	40	111	236	1	3	3.5	22	25	143
	54.5%	79.2%	80.0%	11.0%	8.6%	22.2%	4.8%	6.0%	9.5%	27.3%	47.1%	51.4%
Direct quotes	4	13	5	12	73	13	0	1	0	5	26	4
	36.4%	54.2%	25.0%	3.3%	5.7%	1.2%	0%	2.2%	0%	11.6%	22.0%	7.1%
Unrelated	7	13	6	17	36	9	1	1	0	4	9	3
	63.6%	54.2%	30.0%	4.7%	2.8%	0.8%	2.7%	0.9%	0%	20.0%	23.5%	8.4%
Deliberate	11	24	20	294	1,064	806	25	37.5	33.5	58	180	135
	100%	100%	100%	81.0%	82.9%	75.8%	87.7%	86.9%	88.6%	97.3%	100%	100%
Unclear	7	15	8	19	71	18	2	1	0	6	20	7
	63.6%	62.5%	40.0%	6.5%	6.7%	2.2%	5.6%	3.0%	0%	25.0%	30.0%	18.4%
Clear	11	24	20	275	993	788	23	35.5	32	57	165	133
	100%	100%	100%	93.5%	93.3%	97.8%	94.4%	97%	100%	100%	100%	100%
Processes	11	22	15	82	138	128	6	2.5	2	18	56	58
	100%	91.7%	75.0%	29.8%	13.9%	16.2%	33.3%	13.2%	6.6%	78.3%	75.0%	82.9%
Patterns	11	20	16	82	192	263	7	4.5	8	14	34	68
	100%	83.3%	80.0%	29.8%	19.3%	33.4%	24.6%	15.5%	17.2%	55.6%	85.7%	100%
Practices	10	17	16	78	282	271	3	6.5	1.5	38	45	123
	90.9%	70.8%	80.0%	28.4%	28.4%	34.4%	16.7%	20.4%	8.3%	66.7%	76.1%	100%
Perspectives	9	21	14	33	381	118	2	5	1	9	94	41
	81.8%	87.5%	70.0%	12.0%	38.4%	15.0%	16.7%	25.0%	3.5%	30.8%	72.0%	74.5%

Notes: Each measure is broken down into hierarchical categories following the schematic in Figure 2, and presented as count and percentage (bold/italic). For A and B, the percentage is calculated from the adjacent count, while for C and D the percentage is calculated within each article and presented as the Median/Maximum percent use per article.

Table 3. Occurrence of adjacent qualifiers with textual use of “development” in the selected articles of World Development

Use of qualifiers	1973	1993	2013
% Articles with 100% qualified and no unclear uses	0%	12.5%	20.0%
Median % qualified uses within each article	72.7%	88.4%	96.8%
% Qualified of total clear uses	73.4%	84.1%	95.3%
% Qualified of total uses classified as Processes	61.0%	51.1%	82.8%
% Qualified of total uses classified as Patterns	64.6%	76.6%	96.7%
% Qualified of total uses classified as Practices	87.2%	94.0%	98.5%
% Qualified of total uses classified as Perspectives	93.9%	92.4%	98.3%

Table 4. Representation of general categories within World Development in the selected years, measured as the mean number of categories found in each article (out of 4) and the mean of a weighted score for each category

	1973	1993	2013
Mean # of categories represented	3.73	3.33	3.05
Mean weighted score
Processes	2.91	2.23	1.90
Patterns	3.05	2.31	2.55
Practices	2.09	2.02	2.03
Perspectives	1.68	2.48	3.05

Notes: The weighted score was calculated as follows: within each article, the highest use general category received a 4, the next highest a 3, etc., with a tie recorded as a split (3.5, 2.5, etc.) and a category that wasn’t used given a 0.

Table 5. Summary of use of “developed” and “developing” to refer to societies within the selected articles from World Development

“Developed” and “Developing”	1973	1993	2013
# Articles with both	8	12	9
% Articles with both	72.7%	50.0%	45.0%
# Articles with neither	1	3	6
% Articles with neither	9.1%	12.5%	30.0%
Developed
# Articles with 1+ use	8	14	10
% Articles with 1+ use	72.7%	58.3%	50.0%
Total # uses	125	69	45
Median	6	1	0.5
Mean when > 0	15.6	4.9	4.5
Maximum	85	17	16
Developing
# Articles with 1+ use	10	18	13
% Articles with 1+ use	90.9%	75.0%	65.0%
Total # uses	126	157	89
Median	5	2	1.5
Mean when > 0	12.6	8.7	6.8
Maximum	47	57	25

Table

Year	Authors	Title
1973	Bass L	The role of technologic institutes in industrial development
	Bruton H	Economic development and labor use: a review
	Economides C	Earned international reserve units: the catalyst of two complementary world problems – the monetary and development
	Gaitskell A	Alternative choices in development strategy and tactics: the Mekong river project as a case study
	Griffin K	An assessment of development in Taiwan
	Helleiner GK	Manufacturing for export, multinational firms and economic development
	Hirschman AO	The changing tolerance for income inequality in the course of economic development
	Sinha RP	Competing ideology and agricultural strategy: current agricultural development in India and China
	Stever G	Impact of space on World Development
	Streeten P	Trade strategies for development: some themes for the seventies
	Streeten P	The multinational enterprise and the theory of development policy
1993	Adams WM	Development’s deaf ear: downstream users and water releases from the Bakolori Dam, Nigeria
	Bardham P	Analytics of the institutions of informal cooperation in rural development
	Clements P	An approach to poverty alleviation for large international development agencies
	Cole R	Economic development in the South Pacific promoting the private sector
	Dieke P	Tourism in The Gambia: some issues in development policy
	Doner RF, Ramsay A	Postimperialism and development in Thailand
	Farzin, YH	Importance of foreign investment for the long-run economic development of the United Arab Emirates
	Geisler G	Silences speak louder than claims: gender, household, and agricultural development in Southern Africa
	Haque, CE	Human responses to riverine hazards in Bangladesh: a proposal for sustainable floodplain development
	Hewison K	Nongovernmental organizations and the cultural development perspective in Thailand: a comment on Rigg (1991)
	Ingham B	The meaning of development: interactions between “new” and “old” ideas
	Jackson C	Doing what comes naturally? Women and environment in development
	De Janvry A, Sadoulet E	Market, state, and civil organizations in Latin America beyond the debt crisis: the context for rural development
	Kaminarides J, Nissan E	The effects of international debt on the economic development of small countries
	Kardam N	Development approaches and the role of policy advocacy: the case of the World Bank
	Morgan EA, Power GD, Weigel VB	Thinking strategically about development: a typology of action programs for global change
	Pack H	Productivity and industrial development in sub-Saharan Africa
	Quiggin J	Common property, equality, and development
	Rock MT	“Twenty-five years of economic development” revisited
	Roe EM	Public service, rural development and careers in public management: a case study of expatriate advising and African land reform
	Sofer M	Uneven regional development and internal labor migration in Fiji
	Taylor L	The World Bank and the environment: The World Development Report 1992
	Uphoff N	Grassroots organizations and NGOs in rural development: opportunities with diminishing states and expanding markets
	Zimmerer KS	Soil erosion and labor shortages in the Andes with special reference to Bolivia, 1953–91: Implications for “conservation-with-development”
2013	Branisa B, Klasen S, Ziegler M	Gender inequality in social institutions and gendered development outcomes
	Carr-Hill R	Missing millions and measuring development progress
	Cramb RA	Palmed off: incentive problems with joint-venture schemes for oil palm development on customary land
	Headey DD	Development drivers of nutritional change: a cross-country analysis
	Herzer D, Nunnenkamp P	Private donations, government grants, commercial activities, and fundraising: cointegration and causality for NGOs in international development cooperation
	Hickey S	Beyond the poverty agenda? Insights from the new politics of development in Uganda
	Hudson J, Minea A	Innovation, intellectual property rights, and economic development: a unified empirical investigation
	Humphrey C, Michaelowa K	Shopping for development: multilateral lending, shareholder composition and borrower preferences
	Leonard DK, Bloom G, Hanson K, O’Farrell J, Spicer N	Institutional solutions to the asymmetric information problem in health and development services for the poor
	Mersland R, D’espallier B, Supphellen M	The effects of religion on development efforts: evidence from the microfinance industry and a research agenda
	Nunnenkamp P, Ohler H, Schworer T	US based NGOS in international development: financial and economic determinants of survival
	Orihuela JC	How do “mineral-states” learn? Path-dependence, networks, and policy change in the development of economic institutions
	Pepinsky TB	Development, social change, and Islamic finance in contemporary Indonesia
	Permanyer I	Using census data to explore the spatial distribution of human development
	Rijkers B, Soderbom M	The effects of risk and shocks on non-farm enterprise development in rural Ethiopia
	Rousseau PL, d’Onofrio A	Monetization, financial development, and growth: time series evidence from 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa
	Sesan T, Raman S, Clifford M, Forbes I	Corporate-led sustainable development and energy poverty alleviation at the bottom of the pyramid: the case of CleanCook in Nigeria
	Smith LC, Khan F, Frankenberger TR, Abdul Wadud AKM	Admissible evidence in the court of development evaluation? The impact of CARE’s SHOUHARDO project on child stunting in Bangladesh
	Verrest H	Rethinking microentrepreneurship and business development programs: vulnerability and ambition in low-income urban Caribbean households
	Wyndow P, Li J, Mattes E	Female empowerment as a core driver of democratic development: a dynamic panel model from 1980 to 2005

Table

	Sen			Ferguson			Moser			Escobar
	Total	Q	U	Total	Q	U	Total	Q	U	Total	Q	U
Total	39			35			73			153
Proper nouns	0			0			6			2
Direct quotes	0			0			1			2
Unrelated	0			0			5			3
Deliberate	39			35			61			146
Unclear	0			0			2			7
Clear	39	15	24	35	20	15	59	57	2	139	83	56
Percent of clear		38.5	61.5		57.1	42.9		96.6	0.4		59.7	40.3
Processes	27	5	22	1	1		11	9	2	2		2
1. General immanent process
2. Historical path							1		1
3. Theoretical and teleological				1	1					2		2
4. Idealized improvement	27	5	22				10	9	1
Patterns	2	2								3	3
5. Economic growth
6. Industrialization
7. Health and human services
8. General well-being	2	2								3	3
9. Unspecified/integrated
Practices				4	3	1	2	2		47	21	26
10. General/global institution				3	2	1				39	13	26
11. Specific policies, plans, projects							2	2
12. Financial investment										3	3
13. Interventions targeting patterns
14. Interventions targeting groups										2	2
15. Types of organizations				1	1					2	2
16. Practitioners										1	1
Perspectives	10	8	2	30	16	14	46	46		87	59	28
17. Public conception	6	4	2	13	6	7				15	5	10
18. Broad institutional vision				10	10					38	26	12
19. General strategies and theories							44	44		14	14
20. Intellectual discourse	2	2		1		1	2	2		8	5	3
21. Formalized knowledge	1	1								8	8
22. Rhetorically undefined	1	1		6		6				4	1	3
Developed							1			14
With reference to societies										7
Other							1			1
Quotes and proper nouns										6
Developing	1						4			1
With reference to societies	1						2			1
Other							2
Quotes and proper nouns

Table

Qualifying term	Use in selected articles (n = 55)		Use with Reference to:
			Immanent		Intentional
	Count	Percent	Processes	Patterns	Practices	Perspectives
Policy (-ies)	26	47.3			14	12
Economic	25	45.4		24	1
Strategy (-ies)	18	32.7				18
Process (-es)	17	30.9	12		1	4
Rural	17	30.9	2	1	14
Women	15	27.3			5	10
Agency (-ies)	12	21.8			12
Project (s)	12	21.8		1	11
Agriculture (-al)	11	20.0		8	3
Program (s)	10	18.2			8	2
Community	10	18.2			8	2
Literature	9	16.4				9
Activity (-ies)	8	14.5			8
Effort (s)	8	14.5			8
Planning	8	14.5				8
Sustainable	8	14.5	5	2		1
Approach (-es)	7	12.7				7
Assistance	7	12.7			7
Capitalist (-ism)	7	12.7	3	4
Goal (s)	7	12.7		1		6
Industry (-ial)	7	12.7		7
Infrastructure (-al)	7	12.7		5	2
Problems	7	12.7	1	3		3
Outcomes	6	10.9		6
Plans	6	10.9			5	1